


Bail

by hellkitty



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22136239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellkitty/pseuds/hellkitty
Summary: For Secret Solenoid.
Relationships: Skyfire/Starscream
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39
Collections: Secret Solenoid '19-'20





	Bail

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ribbonelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ribbonelle/gifts).



Skyfire hunched himself onto the small stool in the dingy waiting room. He folded his arms over his chassis one way, then the other way, before deciding that either way looked too, well, judgmental. He tried to rest his elbows on the low table, spotted with peeling paint, before giving that up, too, letting his hands dangle uselessly by his sides. He didn’t fit in this place, in more ways than one. This wasn’t a place anyone should fit in--it smelled bad, like old rust and rancid oil. The walls were that dingy faded beige that just seemed to sap energy out of anyone sitting here. And the tables, with the stools bolted too closely, didn’t seem like they would fit anyone: too big for Minicons, too small by far for him. No room for any kibble, or any freedom of movement. 

Certainly no place for Starscream, either, but that was who he was here for. 

And that was who was walking through the door that had just creaked open, wrists still manacled in front of him, a police officer with a stun baton shepherding him forward. The officer looked at the Autobrand on Skyfire’s chassis, then Starscream’s still-new Deceptibrand, and frowned. 

Starscream’s optics met Skyfire’s, just for a klik, before twitching off. His whole face rearranged itself over the next few kliks, as though trying to find an expression to settle on, and finally deciding on...something. Something that had a hint of a smirk in the corners of the mouth, but with a little tension, like tiredness, around the optics. 

“You didn’t have to,” Starscream said. “And you didn’t have to come. Down here.” 

“Yes, I did,” Skyfire said, to all of them. He hadn’t enjoyed flying down to Proximax, just as the sunrise line was hitting the Sonic Canyons, sending sheers of warm air slicing upward, buffeting his wings. Better him than his Decepticon friends. Better him than anyone. 

The smirk seemed to flag, before twitching back up again, like wings dipping under a downdraft. “They made me call someone. You seemed least likely to rat me out.” 

Skyfire couldn’t keep the hurt off his face. He’d hoped it was...something more. “You called me. I came.” As far as he was concerned, that was all there was to it. “Did you do what they said you did?” His optics flicked to the officer, who scowled at him, but said nothing. 

“Of course I did.” Starscream’s wings flicked, almost annoyed. “It was just a little harmless fun.” 

“The Magnus didn’t think so,” the officer spoke up, irked, trying to burn marks on Starscream’s wings with his glare.

“He wouldn’t know fun if he had some shoved up his tailpipe,” Starscream said, evenly, without looking over his shoulder at the officer. “You either.” 

The officer bristled, tightening his grip on his stun baton. 

“I think we have different definitions of fun,” Skyfire said, trying to soothe the hostility, half-rising from his seat, until his thighs clanged against the table. 

“If he didn’t want to be painted on, he shouldn’t fall asleep in such a public place.” Starscream sniffed. “Really, everyone here needs to lighten up.” 

“You were supposed to be down here gathering data on the Canyons,” Skyfire said, trying to sound firm but gentle. As in, too busy to get into ‘fun’. 

“I’ve got gigs of data,” Starscream said. “Until the magnetic poles switch, it’s going to be the same amplitude variances over and over again.” 

“But it was your job.” 

“No,” Starscream said, petulantly. “This was Beachcomber’s senior project. A stupid project, at that. Just you wait till it’s my turn to be Lead. I could come up with half a dozen better experiments in my sleep. Which I did, a lot of, while I was gathering Beachcomber’s *data*.” The story was too pat, too smooth. Skyfire knew right away he was being fed a cover story--there was some Decepticon business afoot, here.

“Starscream,” Skyfire said, half pleading. Let’s just get out of here, he thought. Then maybe he’d get the truth. The low ceiling and grey beige walls were starting to get to him. The officer’s glower wasn’t helping, either. “I have the money.” It was most of his savings, which he’d been putting aside for orns. “We can pay the fine, and just go.” 

“No,” Starscream said, a note of his old imperiousness in his voice. “That is for your GPR.” 

“It was.” Skyfire shrugged. “I can do more tutoring. It’ll just take a little longer.” He wouldn’t need the Ground Penetrating Radar until his turn as Senior Lead. There was time. Getting Starscream away from this place was more important. 

“It’s a lot of money,” Starscream said, hotly. 

“Not everything is about shanix, Starscream.” The lies, it was about those, too. 

Something in the softness of Skyfire’s voice made Starscream’s face waver, like there was something under the cocky mask, something vulnerable. “I’ll pay you back,” Starscream said, finally. 

“You don’t have to.” Starscream had money, but it would be, well, hard for him to get a hold of without the rest of his trine knowing. Or the other Decepticons. And there was a reason he’d called Skyfire and not his trine. It was a trust--one Skyfire wanted to hold close. 

“I do,” Starscream said, and this time Skyfire could see the smaller jet rallying around that point, pulling himself back together. 

“We can talk about that later,” Skyfire said, struggling to stand without taking half the table with him. It was time to go. “Officer, if you could…?” 

The officer frowned, but he couldn’t find a way to get annoyed at Skyfire’s manners or tone of voice, so he reluctantly stowed his stun baton, and produce a key. The manacles fell from Starscream’s blue wrists with a loud clang. It rang deafeningly in the enclosed space, all the more reason to get out of there and into the open skies of Proximax. 

***

“That officer was a jerk,” Starscream said, still rubbing his wrists, as he trotted down the stairs next to Skyfire. 

Skyfire nodded. “I was less than impressed.” But all that mattered was that Skyfire had paid the fine, and the records wouldn’t leave Proximax. No one in the Academy would need to know. Skyfire couldn’t put his finger on it, but he felt, a little bit, like a hero. Like he’d done something good, something important in the world outside of science. Sometimes it felt, at the Academy, that they just got stuck in data, charts and tables, null values and sample sizes. This, though, this felt real. 

“Thank you for trusting me.” It came out more pointed than he’d intended. 

That falter again, of Starscream’s demeanor, like a mask starting to ripple under heat. “Of course I trust you,” he said, before his optics flicked away, first to the ground, then the sky. “I know a good pub around here, and you look like you could use a drink.” 

“I could use one,” Skyfire admitted. It had been a long flight, and a tough day. “And the truth.” 

Starscream waved a blue hand too-airly at the second. They walked along a few more paces, anything to get more distance between them and that horrible cell. Then Starscream turned, abruptly, his fingers finding gaps in Skyfire’s chassis, pulling him closer, lower, and into a kiss. It was unexpected. It felt sparkling, incandescent, like a star of brightness between them, blotting out anything else: the different badges they wore, their different loyalties, the distance between them. And Skyfire realized...that was the only truth that really mattered. 

  
  
  
  


Epilogue: 

The parcel sat on the flight landing outside Skyfire’s apartment, big and mysterious, so long later that Proximax’s uneven currents had faded from his memory, and the usual routine of classes, lectures, and lab had become a comfortable cycle he could bury himself in, ignoring as much as he could the rising tensions between the two factions, the acts of aggression each performed on the other. War was coming, and he knew it was just too soon before he--and Starscream--would have to put their loyalties to dire tests. But right now...he could pretend. He could hide. And science would unify them. 

Skyfire squatted down, too curious to wait, to open the parcel, its crating bearing odd scorchmarks and small dings, and rocked back on his heels. A ground penetrating radar, the top of the line, way better than what he’d been saving up for. He didn’t have to read the card to know who it was from, but he read it anyway, because he wanted to see the name, and he could almost hear the snicker behind the words. 

_ I always pay my debts--  _

_ Starscream _

_PS Don’t ask how I got it._

  
  
  



End file.
